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CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
City of Anaheim
OFFICE OF CITY ATTORNEY
DATE: JULY 19, 2022
FROM: OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY AND HUMAN RESOURCES
DEPARTMENT
SUBJECT: ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 1.12.060 (CLAIMS FOR
MONEY OR DAMAGES) OF THE ANAHEIM MUNICIPAL
CODE TO INCORPORATE CLAIMS PRESENTATION
REQUIREMENTS PREVIOUSLY SET FORTH IN THE
ANAHEIM CITY CHARTER
ATTACHMENT (Y/N): YES ITEM # 09
REQUESTED ACTION:
1. That the City Council, by Motion, introduce an ordinance amending section
1.12.060 of the Anaheim Municipal Code to incorporate deleted provisions of the City Charter pertaining to the claims presentation requirements of the Tort Claims Act.
2. That the City Council, by Motion, determine that the ordinance relates to organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment, and therefore is not a project within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") and the State CEQA Guidelines, Section 15378(b).
DISCUSSION:
In 2014, the Anaheim Charter Review Committee recommended that the tort claims presentation provisions set forth in sections 1216 and 1217 of the City Charter be removed from the Charter. Notes from that time indicate that the likely reason for this was because section 1216 required the City Council to accept or reject tort claims (tort claims are a prerequisite to filing suit against a public entity under California law). The voters adopted that recommendation and deleted these Charter provisions in November of 2014.
A consequence of the removal of the Charter sections without replacing them in the Municipal Code (which also appears to have been part of the intent) is that this eliminated the protection the City had against tort claims that are not required by California law, i.e., tort claims by other government entities, which are not required unless mandated by the City. The City was recently sued for indemnity in a dangerous condition case by the County of Orange, with the County contending it was not required to file a tort claim as a prerequisite to suing the City because the Charter provision requiring a tort claim had been removed from the Charter. To prevent this from happening in the future, staff is recommending that the relevant provisions in Charter Ordinance Amending Anaheim Municipal Code Section 1.12.060 (Claims for Money or Damages) July 19, 2022
sections 1216 and 1217 be added to the Municipal Code, as set forth in the attached Ordinance. A redline of the Municipal Code is also attached, showing the recommended changes to the Code. The provision requiring that claims be accepted or rejected by the City Council remains deleted and is not included in the proposed Code amendment.
IMPACT ON BUDGET:
This Code amendment will have no budgetary impact.
Respectfully submitted, Respectfully submitted,
Robert Fabela Linda Andal
City Attorney Human Resources Director
Attachments:
1. Proposed Ordinance amending section 1.12.060 of the Anaheim Municipal Code
2. Redline of proposed changes to AMC section 1.12.060